So the hatemail dubbed me THE.... Sodomite Hal Duncan!! (sic) So I will wear that with pride, cuntfuckers. It's like The Outlaw Josie Wales only better, right? I mean, did he have a fully capitalised THE, an extra-long dramatic pause, and two exclamation marks? No, he did not. Chickenshit.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

More Translation Questions

Royal Caledonian Constabulary, on a parallel with RUC, Royal Ulster Constabulary.

169 R-driver -- Well, I don´t think this will change the plot of the book, but I´ve got curiosity about what this R means.

I’ve no idea what the R means, I’m afraid (though it’s “drive” rather than “driver”, as in “hard drive”). I just made it up along with Qube as something that would sorta sound like some new-fangled data-storage device.

128 Stone of Scone -- I´m sorry, is this some kind of set phrase?

Ah, the Stone of Scone is actually a big hunk of rock that used to be kept in the town of Scone (hence the name); would-be kings of Scotland would come to sit on it and be crowned. It was moved to Westminster Abbey centuries ago so English monarchs could be crowned on it. One legend, if I recall correctly, says that it’ll scream whenever the rightful king approaches. It was stolen by Scots nationalists during the 1970s, and although it was returned there are lots of rumours that the stone returned was actually a copy. In the 90s the government decided that it should be stored in Scotland anyway when it wasn’t needed for coronations, so it ended up in Edinburgh.

(Personally, I think it should be ground up into dust and every single Scot given a piece of it as a sort of democratic fuck-you to mediaeval feudalism. The French had the right idea when it comes to inbred, porphyria-ridden, overblown celebrities. If you want tradition then bring back ritual regicide, I say. Give ‘em a year then chop their heads off in a public ceremony outside Buckingham Palace. The tourists’ll fuckin *love it*!

*ahem* Anyway...)

211 Elixir,Accordion, Indo, Autonomy, Thirst, Palomino -- I know all this names came from the Bacchae, but could you please associate each name with the real ones in the play?Znx!

Indo and Autonomy are from Agave’s sisters, Ino and Autonoë, but actually most of those names have snuck across from Virgil’s Eclogues, which I wanted to use to create a sense of archaic idyll to the far-flung fold of the Hinter where the action of the play is taking place for real (or did take place for real), the wilds where Phreedom was roaming when she got suckered in by the angel. So Elixir and Accordion come from Alexis and Corydon (“A Passionate Shepherd to His Love”), while Thirst and Palomino come from Thyrsis and Palaemon (“The Singing Match” and “Are These Meliboeus’s Sheep”).

213 TrynovantiumColosseum -- Some play with Amphitheatrum Flavium and tyrant? Other thing?

Trynovantium is one of the (possibly fictional) ancient Roman names for London. It literally means New Troy and is based on the legend that Britain is named after the exiled Trojan, Brutus.